ISLAND TRAGEDY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 42, 19 February 1930, Page 9

ISLAND TRAGEDY

HOW THREE DIED i

Superintendent runs amok

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, 6th February.

Palm Island, the scene of the dreadful tragedy that was reported on Tuesday last is v little more thaii 20 lhiles from tho nearest point of tho Queensland mainland. It is about 30 miles from Towhsvi'llc, and ils usual tranquillity was turned.to tragedy with amazing 'suddenness. " The island abounds with tropical foliage, and beautiful coconut palms give tho little island a delightfully romantic touch.

The threo who are dead are Robert Heury Curry, who was superintendent of the aborigine station that was conducted on the island) and his two children, whose charred bodies were found in the ruins of their home -which Curry is supposed to1 have set on fire. It is believed that Curry rankled under certain charges of having ill treated a number of aborigines. Worry over this is said to have unhinged his mind, and so it was that on Sunday night he ran amok and shot the medical superintendent, Dr. C. Maitland Pattison, through the neck. Then, it appears, Mrs. Pattison was shot. Tho burning of the superintendent's rosidenee followed, and later the school, the storo and the office were set on fire. The inhabitants of the little island became terror stricken and two natives were, dispatched to the mainland with an lirgent appeal for help. With the destruction of tho storo there was a serious shortage of provisions, and as there was no sign of Curry everyone was in constant fear that worse was to. follow.

It transpired subsequently that Curry left tho island after he had committed his dreadful deeds. However, he roturned in a boat from a neighbouring island on the Monday, and he was shot dead by an aboriginal as;ho landed on the beach. As his children were not with Mm when he returned a search was made of tho ruins of his house, and it was then that the charred remains of the boy and tho- girl .were discovered. Further inquiries showetl that Curry had blown up the- boat that was used to convey stores to th'o island, and he mado his escape in a launch. Dr. Pattison was hot rescued until Tuesday, when he was .taken by the police to the mainland. He was in a serious condition. Dr. Pattison had previously had a brush with Curry, and as a result of certain complaints tliat had been made by Dr. Pattison an inquiry had been held by the authorities. It was Mr. Cilrry who established at Palm Island the aborigine penitentiary which has been in existence for nearly 12 years. Up till that time the island was practically uninhabited, and was a veritable' homeland of nature. The white families comprised the superintendent and his family, the assistant superintendent and his wife, the doctor and his wife, Captain Hamilton (launch driver)' and; his wife, and the storeman and his wife. The rest of the population, numbering about 800 are aborigines, a section of whom, are cannibals. A. tall, slim, bronzed man, Mr. Curry had spent a lifetime among the aborigines, and he was an authority on their customs. Ho celebrated native marriages, officiated at funerals, and was Judge and jury in all tho native litigation not sufficiently grave to warrant its transference to tho Townsvillo Police Court. His wife died about twclvo months ago, and his daughter, about '18 years of age, was tho only white girl on the settlement. Sho was school teacher to tho children of the white residents. . The son was about twelve years of age. A few years ago a native, suspected of ha.ving been a witcli doctor, was waylaid in a lonely part of the island by cannibals. At the first blow he fell to tho ground, and pretending that he was dead he deceived his assailants. After contenting themselves with cutting a rib out of his back they left him. Ho struggled back to the settlement, and to-day, although ho has large gaps in his back, he lives hale and hearty on the island.